Battle The Spread Alzheimer’s Blog

The following is my personal story about my encounters with Alzheimer’s disease and will hopefully illustrate to the reader why this site was started.  This site is dedicated to my father Ming-Pei Chen .. a good, honest man that I love and am proud to call my father..

My father was diagnozed with Alzheimer’s disease in the year 2000, when I was still in college.  It was a very difficult time for my family.  I remember being so frustrated when my dad would go out and buy groceries and leave all of them in the trunk of the car.  The ice cream would be melted, the vegetables spoiled, etc, and my father would deny buying them or knowing how they got there even though at the time, it was only me and him at the house.  These days, my father’s condition has sadly deteriorated significantly, and he’s almost at the point where he no longer knows who I am.  My father often thinks I’m his brother now, and not his son, but at least he still recognizes and calls me by my name when I see him.  But seeing him deteriorate over the past 8 years or so has been sad, hard, and frustrating…  Part of the reason that I wanted to start this project was to dedicate this to my dad.  He was a man who never ceased to sacrifice whatever it took to provide his family with what they needed.  I don’t remember him taking vacations ever while I was growing up, and he often would wake up before it was light to commute a long distance to his job without ever complaining.  I’m actually shamed/embarrassed to say that most of my life I have treated my father very poorly, and I still cringe when I think about some of the hateful things I’ve said to him.  Although I’ve asked for and received forgiveness from him for these hurtful acts, this site and project is dedicated to him to hopefully show him my love and appreciation for his life and his impact on mine.

A little more about myself .. I currently am a software engineer working at Microsoft in the Seattle Metropolitan area..   I am also a Christian, and have been for about the last 15 or so years.  My faith and my relationship with God is very precious to me and something I hold dear to myself in my heart.  Although I certainly am in no means or even close to a perfect person (as I’m sure those who know me can attest!), I believe deeply in the gospel and it gives me hope, reason, and direction in life.  A little less than a year ago, I have been struggling with how my faith and my software skills intermeshed.  Up to this point in my life, I have been very blessed to have had a stable job/career and my skills have allowed me to make a living and benefited me financially and materially.  In my mind, however, I’ve always kept it separate from my faith in a sense that there was not much overlap between how my software skills influenced my faith or vice versa.  One of the verses that got me thinking about all this was 1 Corinthians 10:31 - “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”.

So one day, the idea came to me that I could use my software engineering skills to build simple mental exercises and games to help Alzheimer’s patients.  The games don’t need to be incredibly complex, and in many ways the simpler they were the more useful they would be to help exercise the brain of those with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s.  I also wanted to start a blog, to be able to share my thoughts and hopefully offer some guidance and tips on how to deal with the disease from my own personal experiences.   Best of all, it would allow me to use my software engineering skills for a greater purpose or good.

There’s a true story illustrated in the movie “Chariots of Fire”, telling the tale of two men training to compete in the 1924 Olympics in Paris.  One of them, Harold Abrams, is an Englishman who is rather cocky and self-assured.  In the beginning of the movie, he is speaking to his friend, Montague.  Montague says “I hate losing, how about you”.  Abrams replied “I dont’ know, I’ve never lost”.  Near the end of the movie, before his signature event, the 100 yard dash, he talks to Montague again.  At this point in time, Harold has already lost the 200 yard dash.  He says “You know Montague, I’ve always been afraid to lose, now I’m afraid to win, because I only have 10 seconds to prove the reason for my eixstence, and even then, I’m not sure I will”.  In the next scene, Harold wins the race in record time, becomes a hero, but you see in his eyes a sense of despondency, and he later picks up his bag and walks away with no sense of joy.  When I first heard this story as told by Ravi Zacharias, I remember his comment - “The loneliest moment in life is when you have just accomplished what you thoguht would deliver the ultimate, and its let you down”.

Contrast that with the story of Eric Little, a Scotsman with a famous unorthodox style of running where he flails his arm.  Originally slated to run the 100, he runs the 400 in competition because the 100 trials were on a Sunday and his conscience would not allow him to run on the Lord’s day.  In the middle of the movie, he shares a scene with his sister Jenny who is concerned about all the sacrifices he made to get to Paris (since Eric is also supposed to be training for his missionary work in China).  She says to him “Eric, when are you going to stop?”.  Eric responds by putting his hands around his siter’s shoulders and saying “Jenny, God has made me for a purpose, for China, but he has also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure”.

This story mirrors a lot about what I feel about my life too.  I did not want to use the skills that God has given me only for my own personal gain, because even though I can think it will deliver the ultimate, it will let me down.   However, with this website and blog, and using my skills to hopefully help those caring and suffering from Alzheimer’s, I can “feel God’s pleasure”.  I hope that will make sense in some way to my readers.

In that way, I feel that my faith and belief permeate every part of my life, and you cannot separate the two, whether at home or at work.  I wanted to share with the reader this is a large part of why I ultimately started this website, because it was a way to put my faith into action.  I understand that many readers here are either not religious or do not share the Christian faith, and in no way do I want to disparage those readers or make them feel uncomfortable.  I certainly want to be respectful towards others who do not share my same beliefs or agree with them.  I understand that many of my readers here may not share my beliefs, and I wanted to make sure they know that they are more than welcome to this site, since we have a common bond in our desire to find ways to slow down the spread of Alzheimer’s and honor our loved ones who have suffered from this disease.

Again, I hope I was able to share a little bit about why I started this site … thanks again!

[Note: I wanted to be up front with my readers and let them know that this site is ad-supported]